The Best Nest is an awesome book to read in spring when birds are everywhere!

The Best Nest is the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bird who are looking for the perfect nest. Their current nest is not good enough so they search high and low for the right spot for their new nest.

This book was a favorite in my house and I think we are on our second copy of the book!

Activities for The Best Nest

Hand’s on Activities 

• How to attract birds to your backyard
• Identifying bird calls
• Paper plate bird in nest
• Paper mache’ bird’s nest
• Toilet paper roll birds

Snacks

• Bird’s nest Rice Krispie treats
• Pineapple and Kix cereal bird snack
• Chocolate bird’s nest cookies

Printable Worksheets

• Bird worksheets
• Bird booklist
• Bird unit study
• Guess what the bird eats
• Bird nature study

See all of our Read-Aloud Books and Activities for the entire series here!

Many young kids these days might not even know that the movie Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is based off the book of the same name. I should say loosely based off the book because there are some big differences, however my children enjoy both versions.

In the book, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, the residents of Chewandswallow, have fresh food raining from the sky every day. They have never had rain or snow, only pancakes, sandwiches, steak, and other delicious foods to enjoy. When the weather takes a turn for the worse the town becomes uninhabitable and the residents must sail away on stale bread to a new town.

This is one of my favorite books to read to my picky eaters because it gets them talking about food. One of things I like to do with this book is have my kids make up lists of their favorite foods and help them plan out meals for the week, encouraging them to try new things.

This book is also a great springboard for weather related activities, especially for your older kids.

Activities for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Hand’s on activities

• Sensory Bin
• Preschool Craft
• Cloud Science
• Water cycle experiment

Snacks

• Meatball Cake Pops
• Turkey meatballs
• Taco cookies
• Pancakes

Printable Worksheets

• Types of clouds worksheet
• Wacky weather worksheet
• Cloudy with a chance of meatballs lapbook
• Weather matching worksheet

See all of our Read-Aloud Books and Activities for the entire series here!

Could there be any cuter character in a book than little Sal? Poor thing gets separated from her mother and ends up following a bear! She’s too busy to notice through because she’s busy eating as many blueberries as she possibly can.

Now of course if this was a movie it would be terrifying for kids, but somehow in Blueberries for Sal this story is endearing and one of my favorites.

This is a great book to introduce the letter “B” because you have both bears and blueberries! Don’t forget to make some blueberry muffins with this story, just like Sal and her mother do at the end of the book.

Hand’s On Activities

• Fingerprint Blueberry Snack Basket
• Dancing Blueberries
• Indoor Blueberry Picking
• Paper Plate Bear
• Go Blueberry Picking

Snacks

• Blueberry Muffins
• Blueberry Smoothie
• Blueberry Lemon Bars
• Chocolate Bear Paws
• Teddy Bear Toast

Printable Worksheets

• Blueberries for Sal Printable Pack
• Where’s the Bear
• Blueberry printables

See all of our Read-Aloud Books and Activities for the entire series here!

I have three kids who are dyslexic and reading is very challenging for them. For each of them there has been a book or a series that has been able to cut through the frustration of their learning disabilities and empowered them to work even harder reading on their own.

For my twelve year old son it was the Billy And Blaze book series. He absolutely loved this series about a boy, his horse, and their adventures. It because such a favorite that I often found him asleep with several of the Billy And Blaze books in his bed.

The words in this book are easy to read so it is a great book for a child transitioning from being read to, to reading to themselves. It will also be a favorite for any horse lover in your family.

Hand’s on Activities

• Handprint Horse Craft
• Play the H-O-R-S-E basketball game. (Could do inside with a soft ball and bucket)
• Horse Finger Puppets
• Paper Bag Horse Craft

Snacks

• Trail Mix
• Carrots and dip

Printable Worksheets 

All About Horses Lapbook

Horse crossword & wordsearch

My Little Pony Printables

Interesting Facts about Horses

See all of our Read-Aloud Books and Activities for the entire series here!

I hesitated including Pancakes for Breakfast because it doesn’t actually have any words. However I love this book with my kids because it allows them to make up the story as we look through the pages. The little old lady goes to great lengths to make pancakes which creates great opportunity to get your kids in the kitchen!

Pancakes are easy to make and you can have fun with it by adding different mix-ins or toppings to your pancakes. It’s a great time to incorporate math for your older children by doubling or tripling a recipe and having them convert the measurements.

For extra fun we like to get a squirt bottle (you can use an old ketchup or mustard bottle) thin out the pancake batter just a tad with milk and make fun pancake designs. I use this pancake recipe and just add a little extra milk.

My kids love to have their name spelled out in pancake. First use the squirt bottle to write their name backwards on the griddle.

Once their name has “cooked” for a while, pour batter over their name. Once it bubbles flip it like you would a normal pancake.

Once the pancake is finished cooking it will have their name on it. If you are super artistic, which I am not, you can make really fun designs. We stick with flowers and smiley faces around here.

Even your big kids can participate in the pancake designs and make a few of their own.

Activities for Pancakes for Breakfast

Hands On

• Pancake Sensory Bin
• Pancake Toppings Game
• Make butter

Snacks

• Pumpkin Pancakes
• Banana Nut Pancakes
• Pancake Surprise

Printable Worksheets

• Pancake Coloring Page

See all of our Read-Aloud Books and Activities for the entire series here!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is such a fun read aloud for younger kids.

The hungry caterpillar literally eats through the book on its way to become a beautiful butterfly. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is always available at the library so there’s no excuse to check it out and have some fun with this book.

Activities for The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Hands on! 

Save an egg carton and make this super cute butterfly! All you need is an egg carton, paint, and a pipe cleaner for this fun activity!

Cut your egg carton into three pieces so you have 4 pods in each section. Have your child paint the pods and then attach a pipe cleaner for the antenna.

Other hand’s on activities:

• Raising Caterpillars and Butterflies
• Butterfly Lifecycle Fun
• Fun with Eric Carle
• Caterpillar Changing into a Butterfly Craft
• Butterfly Kit (Amazon.com)

Snacks

Throughout  The Very Hungry Caterpillar the caterpillar eats his way through a variety of foods. What better way to get your child to try some new foods than to eat through the book with the caterpillar!

Foods mentioned in the story are below:

• Apple
• Pear
• Plums
• Strawberries
• Oranges
• Chocolate Cake
• Ice Cream
• Pickle
• Swiss Cheese
• Salami
• Lollipop
• Cherry Pie
• Sausage
• Cupcake
• Watermelon
• Leaf (lettuce)

Another fun idea are these butterfly snack bags.

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There are many versions of this on the internet so just search “butterfly snack bag” to find one that works for you!

Printable Worksheets

• Very Hungry Caterpillar Kindergarten Worksheet Pack
• Butterfly Book
• How to Draw a Butterfly

See all of our Read-Aloud Books and Activities for the entire series here!

One of my favorite children’s books of all time is Make Way for Ducklings. I absolutely love the simple brown illustrations and the story of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard who look all around Boston to find the perfect place for their ducklings.

Children will love listening to how Mrs. Mallard marches her ducklings from one side of town to the other, stopping traffic, meeting an older couple and getting help from their friendly policeman along with way.

Make Way for Ducklings can inspire several different types of activities.  From ducks to the city of Boston, to policemen to peanuts you won’t have any trouble finding activities to coordinate with this fun read-aloud.

Activities for Make Way for Ducklings

Hand’s On

One simple hand’s on activity for young children is a paper collage. Cut up paper (or have the child cut if they are old enough) into small pieces and have them glue them onto a printed duck outline.

Younger children can make yellow ducks, while older children can create a mallard, muscovey, crested, or other favorite duck.

Other activities

• Paper Plate Duck
• Play Duck, Duck, Goose
• Printable Duck Puppets
• Blow the Duck Down the River
• Duck Pond
• Duck Counting Game
• Feed the ducks at a local park
• Lucky Ducks Game

Snacks

• Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
• Easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Buckeyes
• Peanut Brittle
• Don’t forget to stock up on peeps!

I realize these are technically “chicks” but your kids probably won’t notice!”

Printables

• Unit Study
• Printable Duck Puppets
• Baby Animal Classification (toddler activity)
• How to draw a baby duck printable

See all of our Read-Aloud Books and Activities for the entire series here!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

All across the country kids are celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday today. It’s a great day to celebrate as Dr. Seuss wrote some of our favorite fun books!

Remember preschool books aren’t just for preschoolers! Throughout the month we’ll be sharing some older child activities for each book as well so they can get involved too. You are never too old to listen to a book!

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish is a great beginner book that starts with counting and winds up talking about a boxing Gox, a winking Yink, a wet pet, and one hair Zeds to name a few.

I love using One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish for beginning readers because words are grouped by sound on the pages. You can also incorporate rhyming activities (as with many of the books by Dr. Seuss).

Activities for One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Hands On!

• One Fish Craft (see image above)
• Counting activities 
• Goldfish Graphing
• Handprint Art
• Paper Plate Fish Bowl

Printables!

• Fish Worksheets (grades 2-3)
• One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Printable Pack
• Math with One Fish, Two Fish
• Ocean Unit Study and Printables (Elementary)
• Ocean Preschool Printable Pack

Not Just Kid’s Food! 

• Marshmallow Pops
• Healthy Goldfish Snack
• Paleo Fish Tacos 
• Tuna Casserole
• Grilled Salmon

More of our favorite Dr. Seuss books! 

• Wacky Wednesday (Our Favorite)
• Oh, Say Can You Say?
• Green Eggs and Ham (I Can Read It All by Myself Beginner Books)
• The Cat in the Hat
• One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (I Can Read It All by Myself)
• The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (Classic Seuss)
• Horton Hears A Who!
• There’s a Wocket in My Pocket!
• Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
• Hop on Pop
• The Foot Book (The Bright and Early Books for Beginning Beginners)
• I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! (Beginner Books)

More Dr. Seuss on The Happy Housewife

“A person’s a person no matter how small”. ~ Dr. Seuss

Don’t miss a book! Follow along on our 31 days of read-alouds!

See all of our Read-Aloud Books and Activities for the entire series here!